Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
I felt the storm before I saw it. The humidity made the hairs on my arms prickle and gave me the impression that I was walking in an oven. Walking outdoors with my friend, I saw massive black clouds run across the horizon. We looked at each other knowingly; each of us felt that there…
Sixth grade was probably the first time I was exposed to pictures of the holocaust. In religious school, I remember vividly how we watched a movie based on the holocaust and how I was confused as to how that could happen. As I watch my younger sister go through the public school system, it shocks…
Both Israel and the Palestinians have a precondition for negotiations to continue. The Palestinians want construction in the settlements to stop and the Israelis want the Palestinian Authority to recognize Israel as a “Jewish” state. The fact that these are the two things that the two governments have to declare publicly demonstrates neither side wants…
I’m annoyed (and not just at Obama; I think you’ve got that covered anyway). I’m reading a book called The New Rabbi by Stephen Fried (2002), and it’s not very good. It’s a journalistic log of what happens “when a rabbi is replaced” in a popular, large and prominent congregation, which may or may not…
One would think that you cannot surrender your moral high ground in the Middle East. To do so is suicide so the thinking goes. It would be a display of weakness. And so no country owns up to its mistakes, much less its crimes. The Arab World that admits it created the Israel they whine…
President Obama missed a major opportunity last week: to become repressed Shiites’ patron and steal Iran’s thunder. The crackdown in Bahrain, more than any other Arab country, offer a stupendous opening to US foreign policy and the regional balance of power. The United States should consider an aggressive policy against the Bahraini monarchy, solicit the…
In anticipation of their reactive “Move Over AIPAC” conference this weekend in Washington, DC, JVP has sent out a press release with a few assertive quotations from members of its “Young, Jewish, Proud” youth wing. The statements from YJP, whose members disrupted Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s speech at the Federations’ General Assembly in November,…
There is nothing new under the sun. Nothing Barack Obama said is dramatic. But Benjamin Netanyahu is making it seem so. “He doesn’t get it,” said one Netanyahu aide: Referring to the US president’s Mideast policy speech, a Netanyahu associate said: “He (Obama) didn’t deliver the goods…Obama apparently does not understand the reality in the…
As commencement season draws to a close, I turned the Jewdar on to see how MOTs fared in this year’s roster of commencement speakers. The result: rather well. The most complete list I could find included 47 speech-makers adressing graduates at over 50 universities nationwide, so there’s a lot of data missing. The sample I…
Scanning the headlines from Barack Obama’s speech about the Middle East, it is compelling the way different newspapers and online sources decided to interpret his words. You don’t need to read the Arabic to see Arab papers are putting words in Barack Obama’s mouth. Thus far, there is no wide division in the analysis. Barack…
Those who enjoy the US media’s over-coverage of Israel should rejoice: The New York Times has printed no fewer than four editorials or op-eds yesterday and today having to do with the Jewish state. The surge in Israeli-Palestinian-related commentary comes in anticipation of a week filled with high-level Israeli-American dialogue. Tomorrow, President Obama will deliver a speech…
Ouch! [Inflation Data] Schechter put $240,000 toward a new logo and slogan, among other initiatives. [JW] Birthright is raking in the cash. [JW] A self-hating Jew named Israel. [Tablet] This person hates Philip Roth. [The Guardian]
Melancholia. No, it’s not the name of a new drink, but it was certainly one of the most talked about movies at the Cannes Film Festival this morning. Not due to the movie’s impression left with the judges, but because of the director’s remarks at Wednesday’s press conference. “Melancholia,” a film by Lars von Trier…
Crossposted from hipsterjew.com Maybe hip hop has just moved on from the Beastie Boys. I don’t want to be the one to say it, but listening to Hot Sauce Committee Part Two is, while not painful, not something I’d do more than twice. All the problems of the album you can hear on track 3,…
Only in Israel… [Ha’aretz] I’ll be honest: This is here only because the words “New Voices” are in the title. [NYT] Interesting piece on the hunt for Ivan Demjanjuk. [Forward] Leonard Fein goes to Sderot and Gaza. [Forward] The first Jewish mayor of the Second City. [Tablet]